Are special advisors just more consultants that should be cut?

Given the current fascination by the ConDem government for cutting out consultants, I just wonder if special advisor's who are just political consultants should be included in the cull? Every department seems to have droves of them wandering around with no fixed agenda (sic). I note in the recent question to the minister in charge of DEFRA, her bag boy Richard Benyon replied with some basic stats, but interestingly the special advisor seems to have been excluded from the pay grades.

I'm guessing this is because they are not full time civil servant, nor a full time politician, so they must be a consultant.

If we are to have a fair system and all consultants are on the ConDem hit list then special advisor's should be top of the list. If they are consultants earning special pay grades then their wages should be published just like everyone else.

So, ConDems, I call on you to openly publish the cost of special advisor's and be open and fair around their cuts from all pay grades.